LUTHER BURBANK 



oaks placed as no human hand could arrange 

 them for beauty. I cannot describe it. (I almost 

 cry for joy when I look upon the lovely valley 

 from the hillsides.) 



"California's gardens are filled with tropical 

 plants, palms, figs, oranges, vines, etc. Great rose 

 trees, thirty feet in height, loaded with every color 

 of buds and blossoms, in clusters of twenty to 

 sixty, like a cluster of grapes (I would like to pile 

 a bushel of them in your aprons) climb over the 

 houses. English ivy fills large trees, and flowers 

 are everywhere. 



"Do you suppose I am not pleased to see fuch- 

 sias in the front yards, twelve feet high, and loaded 

 with various colors of blossoms? Veronica trees, 

 geranium trees; the birds singing and everything 

 like a beautiful spring day. 



"The sweet Gum tree of Australia grows here 

 seventy-five feet high in five years; it is a beauti- 

 ful tree. Honeysuckles, snow berries, etc., grow 

 wild on the mountains. There are so many plants 

 more beautiful that they are neglected. 



"I improve all my time in walking in every 

 direction from the city; but have seen no place 

 which nature has not made perfectly lovely. 



"I took a long walk to-day and found enough 

 curious plants in a wild spot of about an acre to 

 set a botanist wild. 



[70] 



